Evans, Wilde Join Wheatley’s “Free Fall”

Following their work together on the upcoming “High-Rise,” filmmaker Ben Wheatley and actor Luke Evans are re-teaming for the action film “Free Fire” at Protagonist Pictures, Rook Films and Film4.

Armie Hammer, Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy and Michael Smiley are all onboard the project which has a tight budget of $10 million.

Set in Boston in 1978, Wilde plays a woman who has brokered a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two Irishmen (Murphy, Smiley) and a gang led by Hammer and Evans who are selling them a stash of guns.

When shots are fired in the handover, a heart stopping game of survival ensues. The plan is to do a “muscular, tough and spare” 1970s-style crime movie along the lines of Sam Peckinpah’s “The Getaway”.

Wheatley is writing and will direct the project which aims to begin shooting in the Spring. Andy Starke will produce and StudioCanal has already nabbed the U.K. rights.